Roll-up style floor covering mats or foot grille structures are in general use in public foyer areas and typically include a series of rails that are interconnected. Each of the rails usually includes a channel which receives a removable insert strip, the insert strips forming the actual surface upon which pedestrians walk. Typically, the strips are inserted into each rail by being pulled or pushed into its channel from one end thereof.
Ideally, such an insert strip should be relatively easy to install in the channel, yet relatively difficult to remove under normal use. However, in practice, the force used to insert the strip can permanently deform or elongate the strip such that it will not dimensionally match the channel over time. Several solutions have been proposed to this problem with limited success.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,491, issued to F. L. McGeary, discloses a carpeted insert strip having a plastic backing material to prevent it from being easily pulled out the channel. Hartstein, U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,893, provides a tufted fabric strip heat sealed to a backing strip of paper, jute or a plastic material. Sands, U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,280, discloses a tufted carpet having a polymeric composition applied to its bottom surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,151, issued to Chester Ellingson, Jr., discloses an insert strip formed of suitable plastic materials through a dual durometer extrusion so as to provide a soft, non-slipping walking surface and a fairly rigid, reduced friction underlying surface which may be seated into a grille channel with the application of a longitudinal pulling force.
Shreiner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,672 discloses floor mats with rigid rails joined by living hinges, the rails having a body portion adapted to receive a tread member and a coupling portion by which it is joined to an adjacent rail, with the living hinges disposed in the coupling portion of the rail. However, the flexible hinges employed in the coupling portion have the problem of stretching or compressing, resulting in instability of the floor mat.
Therefore, there is a need for an attractive, functional floor covering which avoids the problems and disadvantages of prior floor coverings.